USC professor Alan Willner elected to National Academy of Engineering

USC Viterbi professor Alan E. Willner, Ph.D. recently was elected to be a member to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors for engineers.

Willner was among 101 individuals worldwide selected for this distinction by the National Academy of Engineering for his “significant advances in high-capacity optical communication systems,” according to the NAE press release announcing this year’s newest elected members. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education and to the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology.

Professor Willner is an innovator in the field of optics and photonics, the science of light transmissions and signals in communications and other applications and one of the fastest growing high-tech industries today. Willner is a Professor and the Steven and Kathryn Sample Chair in Engineering in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He is associate director of USC’s Center for Photonics Technology, the university’s focal point for a broad range of government and industrially funded research activities that are revolutionizing communications, signal processing, interconnections, and military systems.

Since 2008, 10 USC Viterbi faculty members have been elected to the Academy according to USC Viterbi News.

Willner will join 101 other new domestic and foreign inductees in a ceremony on October 9, 2016 at the academy’s annual conference in Washington D.C. This brings the total U.S. membership to 2,275 and the number of foreign members to 232.